(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his third day in office that directed the release of records related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, but those files haven’t been released yet.
Trump has been saying he will have classified records related to the assassination of Kennedy released since he was on the campaign trail.
This executive order also called for the declassification of the assassination files of former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ashley Judd backs New York bill to protect survivors, target traffickers
There has been pressure to release not only these files but also those surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Pressure to release Jeffrey Epstein, JFK files
In February, the FBI said it found 2,400 new records related to the assassination of Kennedy and is working on transferring those files to the National Archives and Records Administration to be included in the declassification process.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is now being pressured to release Jeffrey Epstein’s flight log for his private jet and helicopter, according to The Hill.
“The American people deserve to know exactly who was affiliated with this network. As you know, over the course of many years, Jeffrey Epstein built a heinous global sex trafficking network that caused irreparable harm to countless women,” Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said.
Democrats have not said much regarding the release of these files.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, told Chris Cuomo that she wanted the Epstein and Kennedy files to be declassified. Luna said a plan should be presented this week on how to declassify these documents.
“That will lay out the process in which declassification will take place,” she said. “We met with the National Archives today … if everything goes as planned, these will be publicly available as soon as we get them. The American people will also be getting them.”
Bondi said the files are “sitting on her desk” and that she is reviewing them. Luna posted on X, saying, “On Feb 11 & Feb 19, house oversight sent a letter to the DOJ asking for status on releasing the Epstein files as well as JFK etc. The DOJ has not responded.” She then tagged Bondi, asking her the status of these documents.
Why is there pressure to release Jeffrey Epstein, JFK files?
Many are citing transparency as the reason for releasing these files.
Massachusetts sanctuary cities sue Trump, Feds over funding threats
Blackburn said Democrats have undercut efforts to “crack the Epstein trafficking ring wide open.” In a post on X, Blackburn said, “The time for transparency is now.”
Another Republican senator, Mike Lee of Utah, also said on X that it is time for the American people to “be given access to” these files, according to Yahoo News.
Jeffrey Epstein case
Investigations against Jeffrey Epstein started in March of 2005 when a 14-year-old girl said she was molested at his mansion. Later, multiple underage girls would tell police Epstein hired them to give sexual massages.
Jeffrey Epstein timeline: Sex trafficking, scandals, Ghislaine Maxwell
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell of an apparent suicide back in 2019. He had been awaiting trial for allegedly creating a child sex trafficking ring with Ghislaine Maxwell.
In December 2023, a federal judge ordered for the court documents to be unsealed, which would reveal the names of dozens of Epstein’s associates. In January 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said the documents would be unsealed on a rolling basis.
The first batch of those documents was released on Jan 3, 2024, and more were unsealed in the following days. However, not much was learned from those unsealed documents. In February 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that made more documents from the 2006 investigation public.
Once those documents were released in July 2024, they showed that the prosecutor in the case had painted the alleged underage victims as drug addicts, liars, prostitutes and thieves.
Now, it is alleged that there is a “list of clients” of Epstein that could be released, according to Newsweek. It is rumored that this list could implicate high-profile figures in various sex crimes.
JFK’s assassination
Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, and there are still questions about what happened. He was shot in the back of the head while traveling in a motorcade and was later pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for murdering a police officer and Kennedy. However, there have been theories that suggest Oswald was a fall guy, and some withheld documents from the government have been fueling speculation that the public doesn’t know everything about the 35th president’s death.
Trump has said since his election campaign that he would release all remaining documents related to Kennedy’s assassination. However, according to The Associated Press in November, even though there are likely many government records that haven’t been released, the public should not expect profound revelations.
In September 2024, previously unreleased footage showed Kennedy riding in his motorcade right before the video was auctioned off by RR Auction for $137,500.
What are the theories related to JFK’s assassination?
In 2023, actor and director Rob Reiner, who has a podcast series named “Who Killed JFK,” told NewsNation that he had proof there were four men involved in the assassination.
A private investigator who has spent a lot of his life studying Kennedy’s assassination told NewsNation he thinks there were two shooters involved.
Trump pushes DOGE, tariffs at first Cabinet meeting
“One of those shots was fired too close to the other two to have come from Oswald’s rifle,” Josiah Thompson said.
He doesn’t believe there will ever be a true answer for what happened on that day in Dallas.
